Beautiful Freaks S09E02: Interview with Everett True

Everett True’s influence looms large over Beautiful Freaks. Oddly enough, I’m not very aware of his work from before Collapse Board, the things he became famous for (discovering grunge etc.). In his new book, The Electrical Storm – which you can and should buy here – ET recounts stories and anecdotes from that time BUT with the names of those involved left out. So a chapter could be about Noel and Liam Gallagher, but all Everett will write is ‘the brothers’ (that’s one of the more obvious ones). It’s a very good read!

True has also written a PhD thesis – under his real name, Jerry Thackray – about music criticism in a web 2.0 environment, which is interesting for wholly different reasons. It is titled The Slow Death of Everett True and despite their differences, the two books could also be seen as reflections on the same themes of (illusion of) authority, the immersion of the music critic, et cetera. In this podcast I talk with Everett/Jerry about those themes and the way they appear in his work. It’s very insightful!